01' CKNTKAJ. AFRICA. 289
conntiT, by whom it is called Doura. According to Cap- tain Clappertoii, " The seeds are roasted as we roast coffee, then bruised, and allowed to ferment in water ; when they begin to become |)utrid, they are well washed and })0unded ; the powder made into cakes, somewhat in the fashion of our chocolate ; they form an excellent sauce for all kinds of food. The farinaceous matter surrounding the seed is made into a pleasant drink, and they also make it into a sweetmeat." The Doura of Captain Clapperton is })robably not specifically different from the Nitta mentioned by Park in his ' rirst Journey'; nor from Inga biglobosa of the ' Flore d'Oware' of i\[. De Beauvois, according to whom it is the Nety of Senegal ; and he also well remarks that Inga biglobosa, described by Jacquin as a native of ]Martinico, has probably been introduced into that island by the Negroes, as he himself found it to have been in St. Do- mingo.
Inga Senegalensis of M. De Candolle {Prodr. 2,j). 442) may also belong to the same species.
It is possible, how-ever, that some of the plants here mentioned, though very nearly related to each other, and having all the same remarkable club-shaped spike, may be specifically distinct ; for it appears from specimens col- lected at Sierra Leone by Professor Afzelius that two im plants having this form of spike are known in that colony, and two species, with similar inflorescence, probably dis- tinct from those of Africa, are described in the manuscript 'Flora Indica' of Dr. Roxburgh. All these plants possess characters fully sufficient to distinguish them from Inga, to which they have hitherto been referred. The new genus which they form, one of the most striking and beautiful in equinoctial Africa, I have named Parkia,^ as a tribute of
��PARKIA.
��OuD. Nat. Lef/uminosa-Mlmosca; : Crcsalpincis proximuni genus.
CiiAii. Gen. 'Cali/x tubulosus ore bilabiate (5); cTstivatione iinbricata ! Pelalah, subccqualia, supremo (paulo) latiore; restivatione connivcnti-imbri- cata. Stamina decern, hypogyna, nionadelpha. Legumen polyspcrmum : epi- carpio bivalvi ; endocarjjio hi loculos nionospermos oarcocarpio fariuaceo tcctos solubili.
Arbores {J/ricana et Indite crientalis) inemes. Folia Uinnnata, innnis folio-
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